The Perfect Gift
by Serotiny
Summary: What would be an ordinary day for the Gaang turns into a huge fight between Katara and Aang. Sokka, in hopes of placating the group, goes to the market to buy gifts for everyone. What will each one get? A little Tokka. One-shot.


The smell in the market was one of Sokka's all time favorite things. As he had no affinity for any elements his friends had, this seemed reasonable to love the scent of the odd assortments the marketplace had.

As he had been pondering this notion at night, in the morning, he carelessly gave his opinion to Katara as she was making breakfast. She then vehemently disagreed and claimed that nothing could compete with the smell of salty ocean air. And Aang, surprisingly enough, (despite always trying to agree with Katara) had softly dissented that he would always prefer the aroma of air across open plains in the Fire Nation. Upon seeing Katara's hurt expression, however, he tried to backtrack and say he also enjoyed the smell of clouds as well. _It is a good combination_, Aang thought proudly of himself, _of water and air_.

Of course, by no means did he remedy the situation he put himself in.

Sokka wondered idly if he should risk his safe position in the fight to warn Katara of their slowly burning meal.

Then Katara had looked at him incredulously and told him that she distinctively heard him say that he liked the air above the Fire Nation's plains. Needless to say, Katara no longer despised the Fire Nation as she once had before the end of the war. But still, it was painful to know that her best friend preferred her country's age-old, used-to-be enemies to the wonderful smell of aquatic life in the ocean.

_Breakfast isn't everything,_ Sokka thought sadly, as he saw the food in the pan disappear in a _poof_ of smoke. _Seriously, how could they not notice everything catch on fire? _However, Sokka still wasn't willing to risk his own neck for extra-crispy food.

Aang, embarrassed of his supposed mistake, then heatedly told her that he had meant he enjoyed the scent of clouds to the smell of air over the plains of Fire Nation.

Katara, also becoming frustrated, replied back saying that he was just changing his mind to please her.

Aang then practically yelled at her what did she expect him to say. _He is just making the situation worse_, noted Sokka.

Toph then finally arose from her deep slumber to ask what all the commotion was about. The World's Greatest Earthbender needed her beauty sleep. Even if she could not see it herself she corrected herself mentally. She destroyed her earth tent and "glanced' at Sokka, in hope of a reason as to why the lovebirds were arguing.

Sokka shrugged his shoulders as a reply and told her that he was just on his way out. Besides, he mumbled, he hated being in the middle of a lovers feud.

Taking in her own special view of her surroundings, Toph noticed that the air had that terrible burning smell in the air. She used her sensitive nose to sniff the air twice. _Great_, she thought dryly, _another burned meal Katara-style._

The Water Tribe boy barely noticed the noisy background of yelling when he glanced at Toph's scrunched-up face. It took all of his warrior skills not to burst out laughing at the sight of Toph's face and it's look of pure horror when she encountered the burning smell of their used-to-be breakfast.

To prevent Toph from being in the cross fires of Aang and Katara's feud he left her with a few words of wisdom: Try not to get in their way.

With those last words of wisdom to Toph, he stumbled away from the campsite to escape the unnecessary noise at this hour in the morning.

Only an idiot would be stupid enough to do that, Toph retorted back at him. Sokka blinked at her and said that he sort of liked her and would rather her not getting hurt. Besides, he reasoned, better safe than sorry.

If he had turned around, perhaps Sokka would have noticed the faint blush on Toph's cheek and the slight smile that had graced the earthbender's young lips.

Despite the altercation this morning, Sokka was determined to improve everyone's day with something from the market. Aang's and Katara's gifts were easy enough but Toph's was the toughest by far.

He gave a very weak reason as to why he was leaving them but Aang and Katara were too busy glaring at each other to even notice the excuse. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he turned to Toph to tell her why he was leaving for a few hours.

In hindsight, it probably wasn't that wise to tell Toph a lie, as the Earthbender was apt to fling someone into the air via earthbending. And after the tedious morning, Sokka wasn't keen on being the first flying Water Tribe boy. But Toph was already in a sour mood as one of her two most valuable senses was out of commission. He promised her that she would be pleased when he came back.

She shot back at him that her happiness wouldn't come from her seeing him again.

And Sokka, being the all-around good guy that he was, sarcastically said that his presence would never be the reason for her happiness.

She glared at him for a few beats of his heart then slowly and deliberately looked away from him.

Whether that was her sign as a dismissal or an approval, Sokka enjoyed it a great deal more then flying through the air.

Now, as he glanced upon the interesting knickknacks that the different vendors had to offer him, he thought about the curious aspects of Toph Bei Fong's attitude. He needed just the right thing to persuade her from her bad mood.

He had always thought that she was a wonderful person who deserved the best of everything. True that she was a little rough around the edges and her manner of doing things were crude and, boy, her punches her hurt, but maybe she did stuff like that for a reason.

Sokka mentally and physically shook his head. He hated the way that sometimes his mind went around in circles for hours over the same subject. Again and again and again.

Toph…was…complicated.

And despite her interesting qualities, he had better concentrate on the presents he was bringing to the group before he got lost in the maze of street sellers.

Aang's gift was relatively simple to find. A cloak for when he was flying around on his air glider. And if Aang didn't want it because of how difficult it would be to maneuver a glider with such a heavy load; he could give the cloak to Katara because it was also wonderfully suited to protect its wearer against the frigid weather up in the northern lands. This gift was very realistic as it could function as, possibly, two things.

Sokka knew that bringing one thing for two people could be disastrous (especially when said people were in a fight), so he also got a gift for Katara.

Her gift was easy, in that Sokka knew what he was getting his sister. The hard part was finding just the right look for her. He knew how much her waterbending meant to Katara because it helped her feel competent for the group, so to Sokka, he had to find her the right waterbending gloves.

From what he had heard from various people around the Nations, gloves were very useful for two in the three elements that were left. No one bothered to care about how gloves did anything for earthbenders but Sokka speculated that perhaps the apparel did something subtler then water and fire.

For a waterbender, they always had to deal with constantly changing temperatures with water. It could be very deadly if the water was freezing ice-cold and they touched the ice. Many a-nights, Sokka had seen waterbenders in the Southern Tribe examine cold burns on one another's hands. He refused to let his baby sister have marred hands for the rest of her life.

The Water Tribe Boy scoured the vendors until he found the correct booth. After much haggling with the vendor, Sokka left as a pleased customer.

Aang's cloak had a persimmon tint with a soft undercoat made from the fur of the llamabird. It had a clip on the neck part so that it wouldn't fly off when he was in the air.

Katara's gloves, he had to admit, were beautiful. The palm part of the fingerless gloves was a very light gray. On the backside, the glove was covered with a deep navy blue. All across the blue color were spidery, curly lines that were also a light gray.

Sokka had to admit it was a successful morning.

Now the last problem was finding Toph's gift.

Even as that errant thought flew into his head. He saw it

The perfect gift.

Katara was staring at the sun in worry.

Though her exterior was usually tough as it was her designated position as mother figure, Sokka was her brother after all. She was bound to be worried when no one knew were he went.

Even when she practically begged Toph to search for him she grumpily replied that he was either to far away from her range or he was dead.

She was still in a sour mood because of the smell around the camp.

Katara continued staring at the road leading into the town.

Sokka noticed that Katara was looking for him and right now from his location, he couldn't tell if she and Aang were still arguing about the smells of stuff. To avoid her, he snuck in behind the tents. He was almost home free when he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Letting his warrior instincts guide him, he slowly turned his head to where he felt the staring originated.

It was Toph.

He silently cursed himself for forgetting about the quiet footsteps of their youngest member in the group.

Toph examined him in her special way and asked the most expected question: Where were you?

The Water Tribe Boy could tell that Toph was _still_ ticked off about the malodorous smell she was forced to wake to. Sokka could imagine that her heightened sense of smell only made things worse.

Before something such as fling into the air happened, Sokka quickly cut in about how he knew she was mad and he had a perfect solution.

The boy walked quickly and with an embarrassed gait to Toph. He placed gently into her small hands a round package and then scurried off.

Toph almost ceremoniously explored the texture of the package before carefully opening it.

She gasped.

What Sokka had given her was a coin-size glass sphere. With her earthbending abilities, she could easily remold it into anything she desired.

Toph could feel the beginnings of a smile on her face. She lovingly molded the smooth glass into a heart and then placed the heart into her space arm bracelet.

_Sokka, you big idiot_, she thought but with a grin on her face. _Oh well I guess you are not too bad_.

She gazed proudly at her present.

_No, you are not bad at all._


End file.
